We’re really lucky to have been contacted by someone who really knows his onions on self-service (RFID) libraries.
He runs his own Website, RFID – Changing Libraries For Good.
VB asked him if he thought the costs we had in our article looked about right, what was involved with preparing the library’s books for RFI and, in his past experience, who would RFID the books – an in-house team or an external contractor.
Here’s his full and detailed reply …
Mick Fortune’s involvement with automating libraries is extensive (detailed below in his Bio), being involved with the RFID standard that is due to be adopted shortly in the UK shortly.
Kiosk prices
Costs change all the time as companies may bid more competitively for business they want to win but generally the kiosks cost between £6,000 and £12,000 depending on who supplies them, whether they handle cash, chip and pin etc. and other options that may be needed.
Kiosks only one element
The kiosks are only one element though. RFID isn’t like EM (the most popular existing security system). EM is either “on” or “off”. RFID uses data to control security – but it uses data for a lot of other things as well. Altogether the new standard can manage nearly 30 different “fields” – each with 100s of possible values. So RFID has the potential to be much, much more sophisticated than current systems.
Security features too
And it does much more than self-service as well. In “old fashioned” self-service you just read a barcode and a device shoots 800v through an electronic “arming” device that activates, or deactivates a metal strip in the spine of the book. Security gates just check if they can “see” an active strip and sound the alarm if they do.
RFID uses data written to the tag – usually three pieces of data – to clear security and identify the item as a library book (to stop it setting off alarms in other places using RFID). The gates needed to detect whether a book has been properly issued aren’t the same as those for the strips so the library usually has to buy new security gates as well.
Staff issues
Then there’s the staff. If staff have to work with the books they also need new equipment that can read and write to the tags. Whether it’s to issue a book, or add it to stock they need to be able to access the data on the tags.
Self-service systems don’t work on their own either. They are linked to the computer system that also provides the catalogue etc. So data has to be passed between the self-service (or any other RFID device) and what’s called the Library Management System (or LMS for short). That’s another part of the process that might soon be changing – which is why I said that it was to be hoped that IoW libraries were asking all the right questions of their suppliers.
Often only two suppliers chosen
Sad to say almost every single authority that has invested in RFID has bought from one of two suppliers. Usually they buy one that another council has implemented because they have no idea how this stuff works or the scale of the long term mistake they might be making.
Mick’s yearly survey
In 145 libraries that have just sent me their returns for the annual survey of RFID use in libraries only one (university) has even attempted to buy from any other supplier than the one they first went to. That’s not because they’re happy it’s because the suppliers have them at their mercy.
This keeps prices artificially high – at the moment – but it will all change as the market opens up from March onward.
Cost of RFID tags
Tags are pretty standard as you suggest – but rather more than index markers. The manufacturers sell them to the RFID companies at about 8p each for an order of a million but libraries can’t buy from the manufacturers because every tags has to be programmed to work with the different RFID companies’ data models. So they usually mark them up by between 3 and 5p per tag.
The actual tagging is usually done by a third party company. Sometimes staff or volunteers will be used but if they don’t follow guidelines properly the tags may be poorly positioned, or wrongly programmed. Charges are usually around 28p per item.
So each book will cost between 38-40p to process. Kiosks between £6-12K each (usually at least two per library) Security Gates £6K per pair Staff workstations £1K.
Mick Fortune’s Bio: In 2002 he joined Nielsen and led their e-commerce division running the EDI and Teleordering supply chain for all of the UK’s major publishers, distributors, bookshops and libraries – until attempting to retire in 2006. However he was drawn back into the library world at the invitation of BIC (the standards agency for the book trade and libraries) and eventually set up Library RFID Ltd in 2009 to concentrate on standards development. A keen advocate of libraries and standards he helped facilitate the adoption of the UK National Profile for ISO 28560-2 in 2010.
He also provides consultancy to individual libraries on system selection and integration worldwide – most recently in Calgary and Moscow. Mick was a founder of the campaign group Voices for the Library.
Worked as the first systems librarian for the British Library in 1972! An Internet pioneer – worked on the original ARPANET project that spawned the Internet. After leaving the BL in 1981 he eventually joined Ameritech Library Systems (a forerunner of SirsiDynix) leading their European team of over 200 staff across 6 countries.
He runs his own Website, RFID – Changing Libraries For Good.
Image: denverjeffrey under CC BY-SA 2.0
